This story reveals no marvelous rite of passage. There is no rags-to-riches yarn about selling vegetables on some market corner to earn money for a destitute family. No tale of down to the last nickel on a deserted highway yet having the conviction to defy the entrepreneurial odds and succeed. Perhaps those stories are of generations past, and the stories of the 21st-century entrepreneur are different, filled with contemporary elements like venture capitalists, hedge funds and start-up capital in the millions. Yet, within the fashionable hubbub of fast business, one can still find the common man, the same character and self-determination as in decades past.

Ned Stringham, CEO and cofounder of SBI, a leading technology professional services firm located in Salt Lake City, is the quintessential 21st -century entrepreneur. He has the right vita: B.S. degrees in philosophy and political science, student body president, an MBA from Harvard, a productive stint with McKinsey & Company, and then the mandatory international business venture. With a boyish look and grin that imply his age is anywhere between 15 and 45, he’s successful in an industry that’s rife with downsizing, bankruptcies and other crash-and-burn stories.

“In the ’90s,” Stringham says, “the tech sector was consciously led to the promised land. What they found was that there was no promised land. There were broken promises, broken lives . . . they were stuck in the desert.” When the tech bubble burst, companies left employees and clients out to dry. The dot.com service firms, once the market darlings, were filing Chapter 11.

Conversely, SBI was founded on a brick-and-mortar philosophy that at the height of the ’90s was considered dowdy, but whose strategy became the keystone to its future success. Whether by Stringham’s strategic foresight or simply by luck (Stringham will say luck, when asked), SBI was in a position to acquire its leading competitors and quickly become one of the top five interactive agencies in America, and the only one located between the coasts.

“At SBI, we meet these people from bankrupt companies every day, those left in the desert, and we have to be genuine people,” Stringham says. Integrity is a word that appears frequently in SBI’s corporate communications and in Stringham’s vocabulary. “You have to be real,” he says. “Make commitments that you can keep and be true to your word.”

Stringham says his most difficult challenge has been consolidating his industry and obtaining the dominant position in the market. “To be successful after the tech crash, we realized we had to have people own us. We could not be a conquering nation. We had to find a way to have very different cultures work together in an environment that  – because of the bubble bursting – was very distrustful.” He admits that he had to step aside on many issues simply because building a team was more important at the moment than personal agenda.

As CEO, his job expectations have changed over the past five years. Where he was once acquiring and making deals, building the trust between client and employees, he has had to adapt to focus on innovation and branding strategies. His role continues to change. “Now,” Stringham says, “I have to be much more the promoter, and I’ll have to augment my sales skills, something I admit is not my best talent.”

Stringham feels strongly about people. He says that SBI only hires the best talent and then focuses on their individual growth in the company. “It’s like Maslov’s hierarchy,” he says. “In the beginning, you worry about the money in the till. Then you worry about the client relationship. At the very top of this pyramid are the people, the employees. I truly believe that if you take care of the people, they will take care of the client relationship, and then the money will be in the till.”

Stringham admits that he’s made mistakes but says he has stopped thinking “what if?” While he’s overly optimistic and that can be a problem, he says, he’s come to accept that he makes good decisions and that he shouldn’t second-guess himself. Of all his motivating traits, he says, fear is the driving force. “I fear failure. I fear not being true to me, what values and life experiences I want.”